Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates generally to door assemblies for electronic equipment hot/cold aisle air containment rooms, and, in particular, to door assemblies having a door closer mechanism.
Background
Racks, frames and enclosures for mounting and storing computer and other electronic components or equipment have been well known for many years. Racks and frames are typically simple rectangular frameworks on which electronic components may be mounted, or on which other mounting members, such as shelves or brackets, may be mounted which in turn may support the electronic components. Enclosures are typically frames on which panels or doors, or both, are hung to provide aesthetic improvement, to protect the components from external influences, to provide security for the components stored inside, or for other reasons.
Racks, frames and enclosures have been built in many different sizes and with many different proportions in order to best accommodate the components which they are designed to support and store. Components stored in these enclosures may include audio and video equipment and the like, but quite frequently include computer equipment and related peripheral devices. These components typically include housings enclosing internal operative elements.
As is also well known, the electronic equipment mounted in these structures tends to generate large amounts of thermal energy that needs to be exhausted away from the equipment effectively in order to maintain the equipment in proper operating order or to prevent damage thereto. The problem can be especially significant when the components are enclosed in enclosures, because thermal energy generated thereby can concentrate within the equipment enclosure and cause the components to overheat and shut down. As equipment becomes more densely packed with electronics, the quantities of thermal energy have continued to increase in recent years, and thermal energy management has become a significant issue confronting today's rack, enclosure, frame and enclosure manufacturers, the manufacturers of the electronic equipment, and the users of such equipment.
Typically, multiple racks, frames, enclosures, and the like (sometimes collectively referred to hereinafter as “enclosures”) are housed together in a data center room. Because of the overheating problem, and particularly with multiple enclosures being placed in a single room, thermal management of the data center room is very important. A goal of data center thermal management is to maximize the performance, uptime and life expectancy of the active components being housed in the room. Toward this end, data center rooms are often arranged so as to increase efficiency and optimize performance.
One common way of organizing a data center room to meet these objectives involves arranging individual enclosures in rows, with the air intake of each enclosure facing toward one side of the row and the heated air exhaust of each enclosure facing toward the other side of the row. Rows of enclosures are arranged in back-to-back relationship so that enclosures of two separate rows receive cool intake air from a common “cold” aisle between the rows, exhaust heated air into a common “hot” aisle between the rows, or utilize a combination thereof. Various permutations of these arrangements are well known.
When “cold” or “hot” aisle approaches are utilized, they must still accommodate human access into the aisle so as to access the enclosures themselves. In older implementations, no special walls or other structures are utilized to maximize separation of the aisles from the environment, but more recently, the cold and hot aisle effect has been enhanced through the use of such structures. In these implementations, it has become more necessary to provide doors for access to the interior of the aisles. This, in turn, has created a need for improvements in door assemblies to address such issues as doors being left open accidentally, but without creating additional power requirements. This and other needs are addressed by the present invention.